Sequoia-backed voice messaging company Bubble Motion is getting into the microblogging space today, that is the voice-based microblogging space. The startup is launching Bubbly, a voice-blogging social network built for mobile phones.
With Bubbly, you can record and broadcast messages from any mobile device. When a users records audio messages and updates, followers can listen in whenever they want. To start voice-blogging, you enter a short code onto your phone, and start recording your messages. To follow another voice-blogger, users dial the phone number for whomever they want to follow. Whenever there’s a new audio update, followers are notified via SMS with instructions on how to listen. Bubblers can also control who can listen to their messages, and have the option of masking their actual phone number to prevent followers from calling them directly. Deployed through partnerships with mobile operators, Bubbly is an extension of BubbleTalk, a click, talk, and send’ messaging service that doesn’t require any calling.
The idea is slightly wacky, but has already been released in markets in Asia and has accumulated 150,000 users in India over the past week. I could see Bubble being used in markets where mobile device usage is higher than internet usage on a computer. And Bubbly could be used for celebs to stay close to fans. Bubbly is currently partnering with mobile operators in India and has launched with regional and national Indian celebrities using voice-blogging using Bubbly. India seems like a perfect market for Bubbly, especially considering the success and rapid growth of the Indian Twitter-like SMS microblogging network, SMS GupShup.
Bubble Motion, which is based in Mountain View, Calif., has raised a total of $35 million in funding since the company’s launch in 2003.